Pete Rose sounds off on MLB, calls baseballs 'juiced'

It's Hall of Fame Weekend, and with six of the game's greatest set to be inducted in Cooperstown on Sunday, MLB's outcast all-time hits leader sounded off on his former employer.

Pete Rose offered his take on the state of the game, the influx of home runs over the past few years, and the cause of such a rise.

"That baseball is juiced. I don't care what anybody says," Rose told Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports. "They'll say it's not, which they have to. I saw a ball bounce behind the dugout the other day in Anaheim and it bounced into the second deck. Now, there's something going on there.

"I saw Bryce Harper break his bat in half, and hit a 420-foot home run in New York. That just doesn't happen. I know the ballparks are small. It just seems to me that everybody who plays baseball today is a potential home run hitter."

"Too many guys just sit around waiting for that two-run, three-run home runs," he said. "The teams that put the ball in play go to the World Series. Houston won the World Series, they put the ball in play a lot."

The 77-year-old went on to say ballparks are too small and the excess of home runs is bad for the game.

"The number of ballparks is a joke to pitch in," Rose added. "It's not really fair to be honest with you. You think of Camden Yards ... Cincinnati. Houston is a joke. They're world champions, but it's a joke to pitch there. ... Colorado, Arizona."

There were 6,105 home runs hit in 4,860 games during the 2017 season - an all-time high. Entering Saturday, 3,555 homers or 1.14 per game have been hit in 2018, which is around 565 long balls off the pace from last season.